When pushed further Ngaronoa opted for August.
"You have to remember Charles has won 41 of his 55 bouts over 16 years, 35 of them by knockout. He has the most knockouts of any Oceania fighter in his division and he will win by a knockout again this weekend."
As Ngaronoa pondered the August-Johnson fight it was easy for his mind to drift back to his fighting and training days out of the Putanga Gym, which was the Hawke's Bay headquarters for kickboxing in the 1980s.
During his primary school days Ngaronoa was a promising rugby player. He made the Napier Ross Shield team and the Hawke's Bay Primary Schools team. "I went to Napier Boys' High school where I took some wrong options and got kicked out," he recalled.
It was at that stage his father suggested he should train with Selwyn Jones at Putanga.
"I remember Putanga as the place to go as a teenager, being around tough people who you would look up to and getting a hiding every time you trained.
"You would go back again and again to get more hidings."
Ngaronoa said the fact he has been training in martial arts since the age of 7 under Sensei Tania Karauria had prepared him well for Putanga.
He represented Putanga with the likes of Terry McGarva, Hemi and Renata Rapaea, the late Price Harris, Jason Rarere and Marlon Hodges, all of whom have had an influence on August's fighting career. Ngaronoa said Jones got him across the line, training for well-being and to fight competitively.
"You can't give fighters mana. I learnt that during my Putanga days. Selwyn helped me on my way to earning mana, as a fighter and eventually as a trainer. I am a seed of the Putanga Gym," Ngaronoa explained.
Winning the Australian Muay Thai title in Perth was the highlight of his fighting career, which ended 15 years ago.
"Aussie singer Jimmy Barnes was there to watch me knock their champion out and put the belt on my waist," Ngaronoa recalled.
His biggest claim to fame as a trainer was guiding Kiwi MMA fighter Mark Hunt, a former South Auckland streetkid, to victory when he won the K-1 World Grand Prix title in Tokyo in 2001. Hunt won US$400,000 ($597,000) and Ngaronoa used a huge chunk of his share to fund trips across the Tasman for promising Bay fighters to train at his Liverpool Gym.
Hunt, whostill fights, is one of many Japanese Pride fighters Ngaronoa has trained. He continues to enjoy the training scene.
A father of five, Ngaronoa, has three boys who are into rugby league and two daughters who he said "aren't bad with their fists".
He pointed out he was proud of the progress one of his nephews, Dannevirke-based Pumipi Ngaronoa, was making as a professional kickboxer. "Pumipi is representing our whanau name and leading from the front."
Ngaronoa added it was appropriate he acknowledged all trainers in Hawke's Bay, past and present.
"It's their love of the sport which helps to make an environment for those searching for guidance and place to fit in, being surrounded with mana earned and one day passed on to the next generation."
